Police describe Jackson as leader of street gang

EVANSVILLE - A judge on Thursday reduced the bail of an Evansville man arrested in connection with a Sunday shooting in the parking lot of a grocery store at Covert and Vann avenues.

Two men were wounded in the shootings but police said one of the victims, who was shot in the leg, signed a form refusing prosecution.

Absent from Thursday's court proceedings was any discussion of the gang affiliations mentioned by the Evansville Police Department in 19-year-old Dalarrius Jackson's arrest affidavit.

Jackson — who police said is a "known gang leader of the L.A. Zombies" — appeared in Vanderburgh Circuit Court where preliminary not guilty pleas were entered for him on charges of battery by means of a deadly weapon, a class B felony, and criminal recklessness, a class C felony.

Special Judge Carl Heldt reduced Jackson's bond from $100,000 cash to $1,000 after prosecutors could not give him a reason for the high bond. Heldt assigned the public defender's office to represent Jackson and set his next court appearance for 9 a.m. March 7.

Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann said his office takes gang activity seriously but that the current charges are consistent with the available evidence in the case.

The victim, who was shot in the ankle according to the affidavit, told police that he saw his younger brother in a fight in the parking lot while in a passing car and then got out and tried to break it up. During that time, the man told police, Jackson pulled a gun, according to the affidavit, and the people who had gathered in the parking lot started running. According to the victim's account, Jackson fired several shots at the crowd, striking one man in the leg.

The other victim then told police that Jackson fled into a nearby home but came back out and fired several shots at him, according to the affidavit. He reportedly told police that he did not know he was shot until police stopped him after the incident when an officers stopped as he was walking east on Taylor Avenue.